Trouble In The Trough

The PIIGS continue to lead the worldwide news stories.  Portugal Italy Ireland Greece Spain.  Greece, and now Italy, appear to be on the forefront.  It's amazing that the sheeple believe that removing the prime ministers solves the debt problem.  Going to be interesting to watch!

"The PIIGS continue to lead the pack to destruction."
Random Roving, January 1, 2011

Michael Lewis On Charlie Rose

This is a fascinating interview (2nd half about Iceland, Ireland, and Greece).
http://www.charlierose.com/

Hot Potatoes & Risk Transfers

"Bailouts for Ireland and Greece and speculation that Portugal and Spain may need aid are prompting investors to shun some of Europe’s highest-rated bonds. The cost of insuring German debt against default rose yesterday to the highest since May. The yield on 10-year French securities climbed to as much as 3.247 percent, the most in more than in six months, and the extra yield, or spread, investors demand to hold 10-year Belgian bonds instead of similar-maturity German bunds climbed to the most since at least 1993. More rescuing means a bigger bill for everyone and this partly explains the pressure on yields in some countries, including Germany,' said Elwin de Groot, a senior market economist at Rabobank Groep in Utrecht, Netherlands. 'Now we have the deal with Ireland, there’s speculation about whether we should rescue Portugal or even Spain after that. That’s creating an environment in which there’s going to be risk transfers.'"
Source: Bloomberg

"We are moving apart. Organizations like the European Union are in the process of "fragmenting". During an upward trending mass social mood, we make peace and sign peace treaties. We form cooperative organizations during these times and merge currencies. Now, the tide has shifted. Keep an eye on the EU. As Greece, Spain, and others continue to feel "the pain", their partners in the EU will continue to ask 'why are we being dragged down by them?'."

Random Roving, March 30, 2010

The Great Pig Roast

This is one category that we would prefer to not be in the Top 5 of.  When is the next pig roast?

P: Portugal
I: Ireland
G: Greece
S: Spain

Happy 4th Of July

Happy 4th of July to all.  May today be a great day for family and friend time!

For the irony, I'll provide a quote from a famous Irishmen about independence.

"In just a couple of years, the scenes of soldiers playing soccer with local youths or sharing ice creams and flirting with the colleens had been replaced by slammed doors on house-to-house raids ... the protectors had become the enemy ... it was that quick in Derry. In fact, it can be that quick everywhere. If there are any lessons for the world from this piece of Irish history ... for Baghdad ... for Kandahar ... it’s this: things are quick to change for the worse and slow to change for the better, but they can. They really can. It takes years of false starts, heartbreaks and backslides and, most tragically, more killings. But visionaries and risk-takers and, let’s just say it, heroes on all sides can bring us back to the point where change becomes not only possible again, but inevitable."

Bono, NY Time Op-Ed

The entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20bono.html

Technical Update on Gold

TimingCharts.com presented this updated chart on gold. Note the textbook "head and shoulders" pattern that I alerted you to in July, 2009 when gold was at $930/ounce. They are projecting the next target at $1298/ounce. A little financial malaise in Ireland might be the next "global spark".

Source: TimingCharts.com

Ireland, The IRA, and The Irish Quartet

Jackson and I have been spending a great day out by the pool, but a quick review of Google News compells a "multi-post" Sunday afternoon!

In my January 21 post I stated "when will N. Ireland reignite". Well, it just happened. The AP reports that "Leaders of Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government pledged to keep the peace Sunday after suspected IRA dissidents fatally shot two off-duty British soldiers meeting pizza deliverymen at a barracks entrance". The article went on to say "Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said Irish Republican Army dissidents were trying to rekindle sectarian bloodshed and force Britain to resume sterner security policies."

Rekindle, reignite...it's all the same thing. My prediction on this one was that when the tide lowers, it's easy to pick a fight with an old foe. It usually takes a small spark. The killing of the young boy in Greece that I wrote about a few weeks back sparked riots for weeks across the country. Remember, the Rodney King riots weren't really about Rodney King. They were about some festering long term issues that found a spark to ignite them. Sparks are flying worldwide and fires are igniting. The Ireland squabble presents Christians killing Christians which has always amazed me. Another snippet from the AP article, "First Minister Peter Robinson, the Protestant leader of the coalition, urged Protestant extremists not to retaliate against the Catholic community." I was in Edinburgh Scotland a few years ago and my client was telling me about the upcoming football (soccer) match between the Celtics and the Hibs. She was elaborating about how strong the rivalry was. When I asked her "why do they have so much violence at those matches?", she replied "it's over 300 year old religious differences."

From the AP, "We don't want those years of the past. They were horrible years for everyone," a Catholic priest, the Rev. Tony Devlin, told the crowd of several hundred. "In our churches today many people were crying because of the experiences they remembered from the past. They do not want it to come back again."

The bright spot for Ireland this week is that that little Irish quartet just released another great CD called No Line On The Horizon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2

They sounded great on their live show from Fordham University on GMA last week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/nyregion/07fordham.html?ref=arts

The NY Times reports: "After the band played two rousing short sets of music, Fordham’s president, the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, took the stage and addressed the cheering students. “You may wonder why U2 chose us,” he said. “They chose us because we’re in New York, because we are Fordham, because of the warmth of the campus.” He drew a parallel between the campus principles of Fordham and those of U2’s members, mentioning “social justice, service of the poor and advocacy.” Father McShane said he was pleased to see so many students show up for the concert so early — students began lining up at 3 a.m. — and joked that the university would add extra-early classes to the curriculum. “So, ladies and gentleman, there will be class,” he said, “but you’ve had the experience of a lifetime.”

May Ireland rediscover peace and the Christian community rediscover the true meaning of Christianity.